Requisite Christmas Music Review!

  So someone else beat me to the punch this year, but happily he didn't write about the musicality of the season.  Check out his article on the storied ghosts of Christmas here, much recommended!  I know Charlie Brown really tried to get the true meaning of Christmas, but it's depressing.  I know the Grinch hinted at it, but the roast beast just doesn't cut it.  Even my local Christian radio station seems to be missing the boat, literally playing things like "Let it snow' and "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas" endlessly but ignoring the many great sacred classics save an occasional instrumental nod from the Trans-Siberian Light Orchestra, at least there's no Santa Baby, that's a plus, right?  It sounds more like a seasonal mall sound track than anything else, especially a Christian station at Christmas!  While I don't mind that stuff, sadly, like Charlie Brown, I am more than a little frustrated with our whole culture focusing on the tinsel and the glitz and ignoring the glaring ache that this season entails for many.  It seems we can either be insipidly happy or alone in our grief which often manifests as anger towards the season in its entirety.

But if you hate Christmas because you hurt, you aren't alone!  It is a problem native to all humanity, not just the modern post-christian west, our problem is the same as the ancient pre-christian east or even the insipidly pseudo-christian America of our nostalgic recollection.  While Charlie Brown thinks he hankers after that nostalgic, idyllic ghost of Christmases past, there is no such history, no such reality, because that has never been what Christmas has been about nor is it the ache that haunts his heart like Marley in Ebenezor's bed chamber.

Many of the secular Christmas haters are happy to proclaim that Jesus wasn't really born on December 25th and that we're simply recycling an old pagan holiday, and I'm most happy to agree with them, and their point is?  Men have always been religious, keenly interested and much afeared of the supernatural, at least until our materialistic modern age with its electric lights to forever drive off the dark of superstition and the utter night of ignorance, thinking we are quite something, as if we invented the physics behind the phenomenon, content in our assumption that it 'just happened,' and never questioning the Light behind our light and little realizing that by blinding their own eyes thereby, they are now the ignorant!  That is why we demand a Light in the darkness, and celebrate its coming at the darkest time of the year, not because we know Jesus was born on that particular day but rather that His coming at the appointed time relieved the spiritual darkness in which the whole world languished and we celebrate the fact as his first coming at the darkest time of the year.

But our problem is we forget why we celebrate His coming, yay a baby, a light of the world, but why is that significant?  His birth, while miraculous and marvelous and bright, is nothing, does nothing, rather it is His sinless life, His atoning death, and His conquering of death and darkness and sin forever by rising again to new life that we can sing and rejoice and make merry this time of year and all the year long!  But we'd rather sit with our glitz and jingle, aching inside, making merry without, and wondering why we can't be happy when everybody else seems to be as well.

This is where the great sacred Christmas hymns come in, look past the first well known verse or chorus or the haunting instrumental and delve into the depth, the mystery, the sorrow, the joy, the meaning of this babe's incarnation, the very word made flesh.  Only therein can we find meaning and true joy in this paradoxical season of utmost joy and aching loneliness and unrelenting sorrow, only in Him can all find their true 'comfort and joy.'  Santa and Grinches are fine and fun, but let us not forget the true meaning behind it all!

I fell in love with a smoker...well, actually it is a grill with a bad habit! A review of the Ninja Outdoor Smoker/Grill

 I don't grill.  Too much work and fuss and mess for usually unreliable results.  A propane grill is expensive and doesn't add much flavor.  A charcoal grill is time consuming and fussy.  And actually getting into the smoker craze looks a bit intimidating.  I remember charred, dry burgers from my childhood.  Steak that was burned on one side and raw on the other.  No thanks!  Did I mention we have winter here: feet of snow and negative temps and lots of wind?  

A year or two ago a distant relation made supper on an electric grill, and we briefly looked into getting one, but never bit, it wasn't all that different than stovetop or broiler.  I did buy a ninja foodi (pressure cooker/air fryer combo) last summer and have been super happy with that, but a grill?  Then ninja decided the world needed their own version, and I was curious, but the price was a bit steep.  I kept an eye on it but even on sale it was around $300.  But I finally found a basic version (refurbished) for significantly less and  gave it a try.

It is an electric grill with a smoker function used solely to impart flavor, the heat is all electric.  I bought it in November (we had a foot of snow the week before Halloween but strangely moderate temps after that). I've used it weekly (including temps in the 20s F) since.  I think I'm in love again, if one can have an affair with a kitchen appliance.  Like the foodi, it has a plethora of functions, but you pretty much only use it for grill or smoker, like the foodi is either pressure cooker or air fryer and you don't use the other settings.  I tried the air fryer but wasn't impressed, I'd rather do it in the foodi.  I also haven't used the smoker setting on a long low temp yet, instead I stuck a 7 pound pork butt in the pressure cooker for an hour and then smoked it for an hour and the results were pretty good without having to cook it in the smoker for 6-8 hours.  

It is small and portable, but it is also large enough to do quite a bit of meat at one time.  Clean-up is a snap and you don't have to stand there watching the thing, just check it every so often, turning as needed, which is why I can use it in December!  It gives a nice smoked flavor to things but isn't a true smoker, this won't replace your Traeger but it is a nice option for beginners and the timid or people with limited space/time.  It cooks fast, food comes out tender and juicy (I do brine my meat which probably helps as well), and it is simple, easy, and fun to use.  Definitely a great investment, especially for the first time griller/smoker!